


Harmonious Completion

by orphan_account



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Fucking rambling, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, I swear, Listen there is literally too much sexual bullshit to tag it all I am sorry, M/M, Mega smut, Omegaverse, Probably ooc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 22:50:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5761903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Being a beta meant being a human. Being an alpha meant being a strong beta with a heavier sexual appetite. Being an omega meant being a weak beta who can only hide their shame with medication and deception.<br/>Arin tried so hard to hide.<br/>OR: The omegaverse Egobang fic literally no one asked for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Harmonious Completion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cottonstones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cottonstones/gifts).



> I apologize in advance for this shameful display. I don't know how to write like a not pretentious asshole.  
> I dedicate this fic to the lovely Cottonstones for all her sweet sin and inspiration.

“Eww, dude, you’re horny as fuck right now.”  
  
“That’s as gross as it is hilarious.”  
  
“Keep that to yourself, seriously.”  
  
Ah, the sweet words of family. Arin lulled his head to the side as his brother and cousins mocked him for the umpteenth time that weekend. He wiped at his neck subconsciously, pawing away at the faint trace of a smell he could not keep hidden for long. The other boys had noticed it within the first hour of their hangout, and now Arin knew he would be forced to either subject himself to their ridicule for the rest of the evening or explain to his mom why he chose to walk home alone immediately after heading out.  
“I bet your asshole is like, fucking quivering right now.”  
  
And with that, Arin slung his Megaman tote over his shoulder and let the front door slam closed behind him. No one followed or tried to stop him. He began humming half-heartedly to the percussion of his footsteps, losing himself in the melody he created, ignoring the ache in his body.

 

\---------------------

  
Ten years later, Arin finds himself humming the same broken melody in the shared kitchen of his newest office, fixing himself a sandwich and eagerly awaiting the day ahead.

Life had certainly picked up for him as he left the merciless world of high school behind. He still ached every so often, but the suppressants kept it to such a minimum that is was more analogous to catching a cold at this point. He slathered his bread with a thick layer of mayo and strode back to the main foyer, plopping on the couch and shivering from the feel of his miniature ponytail fanning air onto the back of his neck.

“Baby, we agreed to go easy on the fatty condiments this year.”

Arin huffed with his mouth full, too enraptured to reply. He felt her dip into the back of the couch, leaning close to him with a bright smile. “It’s barely been a week and we’ve already gone through a whole jar of mayo.” Suzy let out a musical giggle at the end of her sentence, driving home the fact that she was not actually all that disappointed in her husband, so much as she was amused by his lack of self-restraint.

Swallowing the thick bite, Arin coughed out, “I know, but like, it goes down so smooth.”

“Just like my dick.”

Arin stiffened his shoulders ever so slightly at the quip, feeling the presence in the room before the sentence even finished. Dan leaned against the doorway by the hall, eyes squinted and lips pulled taut in a grin at his own words.

A forced chuckle fell out of Arin’s throat on instinct, hidden by Suzy’s genuine laugh. She waved warmly at their guest and walked back towards her desk, tuning out the boys and their soon-to-come antics.

“Hey man, gimme a bite, would ya?”

Dan approached Arin without reserve, sitting down comfortably close to him and ignoring most commonplace boundaries. He had gotten so much looser in the past few months, much more at ease around his co-host. Arin was never sure if this was entirely for the best or not.

Without much thought, Arin lifted the sandwich diagonally and watched with dazed eyes as the lankier man took a quick chomp from the corner of the bread, breaking off and chewing with a satisfied hum. Arin decided he wasn’t so hungry, after all.

“You can have it, my stomach feels like shit anyways.” Arin passed the plate off and let it sit on Dan’s lap, then flopped backwards against the couch and rested both his hands against his abdomen. He huffed out something adorably close to a pout. Dan’s eyes twinkled with his faint giggle, but they hardened again in worry almost instantly.  
His voice dropped as he learned closer to his friend, “Is it the pills again?” Dan frowned lightly at Arin, watching his reaction. Arin kept his eyes forward, nodding without much thought before standing and heading to the recording room, knowing that Dan would follow before long.

It had been nine years since Arin started his treatments. His mother put it together before long: her son missed school more than he attended, he would lie in bed for hours on end with no signs of life but weakened groans, and he eventually stopped trying to mask the smell with dollar-store cologne. She made sure the decision was his own, but consented fully to the medical path most of the youth took. The suppression was more normal than embracing it at this point.

He presented earlier than he had hoped, but he had always truly known he couldn’t have been born a beta. He had never been that lucky.

 

\---------------------

  
Suzy hummed a nameless song as she drove herself home, thinking momentarily on how she could have gotten it so stuck in her head. The thought left as quickly as it came, her mind dancing around the much more enticing prospects of crafting projects and preserved insects.

She was home before Arin, as usual, and the allotted peace and quiet allowed her to focus fully on the work that she adored so much. She smiled to herself for a majority of the evening as she busied herself with meticulous labor. She bowed her head appreciatively to whatever goddess gifted her with the attention and motivation to do all the things she desired.

 

\---------------------

  
The cold slap of water stung his scraggly cheeks, the drops falling below his clavicle and into his shirt before he could catch them. He muttered incoherently about the annoyance, letting his head hang over the sink, arms extended in front of him propped against the tiled wall.

He dared a glance into the mirror, regretting it instantly. His eyes were darker today and he was obviously exhausted. His heart thumped rebelliously against his chest and he felt one lone water droplet carving a path all the way down to the sharp edges of his hip. He sighed at the feeling and dropped his hands to the sink. His ringed fingers tapped idly against the porcelain while he closed his eyes and summoned the courage to go back out for another episode.

Dan steeled himself and stood up fully.

Just another day.

 

\---------------------

  
Arin found Suzy tucked up preciously into a human ball, piled carefully under thick comforters with the ever-present smile still ghosting across her lips – even in sleep. His eyes stung the longer he looked at her, but he never looked long enough.

He found his way to his bathroom cabinet and emptied the daily doses into his clammy palm: two suppressants, two Vyvanse, and three Tylenols for the migraine to follow closely behind his inevitable insomnia. He grimaced as the pills went down, tasting the putrid chemical coating that had dissolved in his moist hands.

Only his closest friends and family knew his status. He wasn’t as ashamed of it as society convinced him he should be, but it definitely impacted his impressions on people when they happened to find out. He never lied, though: if anyone ever assumed he was a beta he would inform them that they were incorrect and leave it at that.

Several mindless hours passed and Arin had completed one ninth of a half-assed drawing, had eaten another fatty sandwich, had twiddled his thumbs for at least ten minutes cumulatively, and had lifted some dumbbells for an unimpressive amount of time. His night dragged on miserably, until the restless nature of his mind quieted just enough to allow him to fall asleep on the living room couch with one hand on his neck.

Suzy would awake before dawn and draw a warm blanket over him.

 

\---------------------

  
This quaint rhythm of life continued on for another year. Arin and Dan had now been business partners for two solid years, and their friendship grew exponentially with every passing day.

“Arin, I gotta be honest, I could smell you from down the street. You doing okay?” Ross asked from across the room, eyeing Arin inquisitively with his honestly innocent question. He never meant offense, and he was always brutally honest – a trait not lost on his friends. He asked these kind of questions periodically, considering them friendly reminders that Arin was showing again. It was a good-hearted habit, all things considered.

“Fuck off, Ross, not every beta on the planet is as horny as you.” Dan defended his friend without hesitation, laughing dismissively with a noticeably irate tone. He caught Ross’ shrug from the corner of his eye, his attention now re-focusing on his monitors. Dan fixed his gaze towards Arin, gauging his reaction of the brief interaction.

Dan frowned minutely as Arin stayed silent. He knew those things bothered Arin more than he would ever admit.

“I saw this alpha in full rut on the freeway. I guess bumper-to-bumper traffic can be rough, smells get through pretty easily.” Barry rattled on a story, hoping to divert the conversation to something more light-hearted. “He was practically humping his steering wheel.”

Most people in earshot laughed at the tale. Arin’s forced chuckles were getting more convincing. The conversation snowballed as more people joined in, recounting hilarious moments of weakness from both alphas and omegas alike. Only Suzy, Dan, and Arin stayed mostly quiet throughout the morning, the two men burying themselves in busywork to hide their disinterest.

Dan’s frowned deepened when he noticed Arin’s fingers dancing through the edges of his hair, falling limply towards his neck where they stayed for several seconds.

Dan felt as sick as ever.

 

\---------------------

  
Barry, Ross, Kevin, Suzy, Holly, and Jack all made their beta status obvious. Even if they weren’t overt about it, they reeked of normality in every social setting.

Betas didn’t technically “present” like the other two classes; they essentially developed through a basic puberty and into a sexually tame adulthood. Some felt heavier sexuality than others, and some felt none whatsoever. Some could smell a heated omega off their meds from a mile away, others could barely smell a skunk. Some were comfortable mating with any class, most kept to a pureblood beta lineage.

Suzy knew about Arin from their very first meeting. Even before that, she had heard mean rumors fired through the hallways like toxic arrows, spreading contempt amongst the student body: a freshman who presented in the middle of his art class, with a bright pink t-shirt on and everything. It was almost impossible to not know who he was.

She bumped into him once on accident, then a second time on purpose. She loved him almost instantly.

He warmed up to her quickly as well, but his love never bloomed as fully as hers did. He lamented about this daily, wishing he could love her as brilliantly as she loved him. He never felt he deserved her, and she always tried to change his mind.

Ross came into his life shortly after, commenting on Arin’s smell the first time he fell into a heat around him. They had only known each other for a few weeks when it happened and Arin was stunned at the foreigner’s openness towards the topic: “You smell good, honestly. The pills don’t cover the quality of it, that’s for damn sure.” Ross abandoned the subject as quickly as he’d approached it, leaving Arin to blush mildly and bury his hands under his thighs to keep from rubbing at himself.

“Thanks, I guess.”

The others fell into their lives sporadically and perfectly, finding their place in the group and making everyone feel at peace in their growing, dysfunctional family.

Dan’s presence rippled through the group powerfully, bringing instant joy to them all. Brian followed shortly after. He was a proud alpha, self-proclaimed as the “most docile alpha of the century”. No one had ever noticed him in a rut, and he kept his composure in the biggest, smelliest crowds. He never commented on Arin or any other omega seriously, joking about it like all the other betas. He fit in well, but he never denounced his class to anyone.

Dan was the anomaly. No one had ever once asked him since he joined the grump family. Everyone assumed, as they had since his youth. He kept it that way.

 

\---------------------

  
“Next time on Game Grumps: Dan finally makes a move on me!”

“Wo-o-oah! Hahah okay!”

The audio capture powered down as Arin began closing all the equipment, still chuckling intermittently over their last episode. It had been another good one.

Dan rubbed his long fingers over his thighs thoughtlessly, watching Arin as he went through the motions of shutting down for the day.

“Dude, let’s get some fucking pizza, my tummy is going crazy.” Arin sat back down next to his friend as he rubbed his stomach. His eyes darted over, noticing Dan’s spacey expression. He laughed quietly to himself, admiring the profile of the gorgeous man. ‘Fuck me hot’ applied perfectly to Dan, and Arin would be the first to admit it (if only half-jokingly).

After an unnatural period of silence, Arin pushed Dan lightly, shaking him from his spaced-out state. Dan’s eyes found his own looking both puzzled and apologetic. He cocked his head to the side, silently asking Arin to repeat himself.

Another sweet laugh and Arin asked once more, watching with adoration as Dan’s eyes warmed up at the thought of gooey pizza. They went about their dinner and the rest of their night without incident, until the two drove towards Arin’s house at the end of the evening. Arin’s car had been in the shop for days and Dan had been helping him with his daily commute as their schedules lined up much better than his and his wife’s. The extra time together had been bittersweet for them both.

“She was pretty beautiful, I have to say.” Dan finished his story, regaling Arin with yet another female triumph of his. Arin nodded mindlessly in response, staring out the window, allowing his head to go as blank as it could to evade any negative emotion.

While Dan began singing along to the catchy melody pouring out of the speakers, Arin’s cheese-filled stomach began to gurgle. The subdued flush of his blood followed quickly after, causing Arin to groan weakly in the back of his throat. He had passed out before he could take his medicine last night, and he knew he would pay the price. It had been months since his last “flare up” –as the doctors took to calling it – and he accepted the inevitability of one hitting him with dread. This was as inopportune as it could get.  
The heat started from his stomach first, always, and worked its way through the entirety of his torso next. It felt like his chest was blushing and he was slightly hungry, even if he had just gorged himself. Then it moved to his groin. This is where the namesake heat struck in full force, warming up his hips, backside and crotch in one fell swoop. Lastly it snaked its way up his throat, lingering at the base of his skull and under his jaw like a ghostly touch. The scent dripped out of him there, and he could always tell when it was coming from him. Some nights he would wake up and feel it on his throat before he even noticed the rest. Other nights he would awake with his lower half slick and his forehead hot as hell, whines escaping from his lips for no apparent reason.

Tonight, the surge in the groin was strongest. He squirmed in his jeans, thankful for the roughness of the fabric and the way it satiated his instant longing for contact. He listened to Dan’s voice, waiting to hear the recognition. Arin knew Dan could smell him, even if he was never as dickishly overt as Ross or as subtly intuitive as Suzy. Dan made it obvious in his own way, and Arin knew his friend was a smart beta.

On the next chorus, Dan’s voice faltered. His knuckles tightened under his skin and the steering wheel cover bunched up under the sudden grip. He kept his eyes forward and picked up his singing quickly, playing it off as a lull in his knowledge of the song, laughing soon after about how hard it was to remember the lyrics to this damn album.

Arin was grateful for this game of pretend. He didn’t know if he could stand Dan pointing out the obvious to him – not when his dick was pulsing in his pants at the thought of the older man, or when his boxers were very obviously going to have to be changed when he got home because they were already damp from the very onslaught of this heat.

Arin watched pensively as Dan bopped his head to and fro in delayed time with the song, his long fingers drumming along softly. His v-neck was tighter than usual and his shampoo was stronger today. His dark hair was particularly curly with this weather, and his ancient jeans ripped open in all the right places as though they were begging to show off the skin beneath them. Arin murmured incoherently to himself.

The noise caught Dan’s attention and the eye contact that soon followed was strong and imprisoning. They sat at a busy red light, the song still squawking away in the background. Dan’s huge, brown eyes made Arin quiver, and he tried pathetically to swallow the growing lumps in his throat. Finally, his hand flew up to cup under his jaw, moaning at the feeling.

Dan’s eyes widened at the sound, and he forced himself to look away.

Arin turned back towards the window, squeezing his thighs together and rushing for his front door as soon as they parked in his driveway. No goodbyes were exchanged, and no one commented on it.

 

\---------------------

  
“Holy fuck…”

His fist tightened further against his straining erection, pumping himself repeatedly with his eyes screwed shut and his hair haloing around his head.

Round three and still he felt himself building faster than he ever should. He willed the impending orgasm away but knew it was futile, his abs tensing and his hand speeding up on instinct despite his subconscious disapproval¬¬¬. He painted his chest white for the third time, though there was admittedly less this time around.

He forced himself to drop his hand back to his side and finally opened his eyes, staring weakly at the dark ceiling. Minimal light leaked in from the closed blinds, but there was just enough for it to catch on the creamy substance splattered all over him. He looked at himself disapprovingly, already sitting up and cleaning himself off.

His shower was cold and abrupt, rinsing away his shame.

Arin’s heats always did this to him. They always fucking wrecked him. He would sleep like a log tonight, at least. He took little comfort in that.

Barry knew, and he knew that Barry knew. Neither had ever brought it up, but it was a mutual understanding at this point. An unspoken, mutual understanding. At first Barry had assumed, like the others, and passed it off as the horny Danny Sexbang living up to his name despite his beta status.

The illusion shattered quickly in their close quarters.

 

\---------------------

  
Another six months pass, and Arin starts another heat during their recording.

They end the episode hurriedly, making excuses of hunger and needing to shit, respectively.

Arin drops his head in his hands and lets the assault of his senses wash over him, subdued though it may be. “I’m sorry, man; I missed my pills like three times this month.” Arin sounds so honestly apologetic that Dan’s chest pangs with sorrow – he never wanted to hear Arin like that. This wasn’t something he needed to apologize for, now or ever, even if it inevitably hit Dan like a cannonball.

“Arin, no – really, it’s okay! I’m sorry it gets so bad.”

These conversations are so rare for them. They have little-to-no reservations on almost every other topic under the sun. The nature of their friendship allowed for plenty of honesty even if they broached the subject only once or twice a year.

“It sucks, but it’s not unbearable.” Arin answers with little thought; he had grown so tired of choking down his responses. He could talk about it just this once.

“What does it feel like?”

The question gave Arin pause. His head still in his hands, he thought carefully on his answer. Dan looked on at him, innocent and genuinely curious. The smell hadn’t hit him in full effect yet, and he planned to ignore it for as long as humanly possible.

“Uhm.” Arin sat up, choosing to look at the T.V. as he spoke instead of at his co-host, “It feels different in different parts of my body, and they’re all unique and hard to explain.” Dan nodded politely, leaning forward ever so slightly. He obviously wanted details beyond that generic rundown, and Arin could tell without looking at him. “The actual hot part is obviously around my dick and my ass and stuff.” Dan swallowed, appreciative of the blunt honesty. “The rest is a lot of tingling and tightness in my muscles, and I guess my neck just feels… weird? Like, that’s where the smell comes from. It just feels like nothing else I can explain.” Arin finally glanced at his friend at the end, noting his tense body language and his attentive focus. He felt a small blush of relief at their talk, like it was something they should have shared years ago.

“That’s actually pretty cool.” Dan forced himself to sit back, being mindful of the growing pressure building in his jeans. “Thanks, man, for sharing.” Arin bowed his head sheepishly, feeling self-conscious again as another wave of warmth spread closer to his ass than before. He squirmed, pushing his hands under his thighs on instinct to keep them still.

Arin excused himself not long after, admitting to needing to go to the restroom to “take a shit and stuff”. Dan palmed at his bulge for a solid thirty seconds, allowing himself no more. He sat still after that and used the tortuous lust as a penance for his sinful thoughts and actions. Arin would be none the wiser when he returned, finding Dan thumbing through his phone and greeting him with a smile, sweeping the conversation and the entire incident under the rug.

The rest of their episodes were some of their best ever.

 

\---------------------

  
Four days later, Arin went home early for the night. Everyone in the office knew why and he was too frustrated and exhausted to bother lying about it or covering his tracks.

The pills could only do so much once the heat actually began, and this was the longest the poor man had gone through in years. Suzy could only help so much: pegging had been introduced to their relationship years ago, along with role-playing, bondage, and an abundance of other kinky rituals far outside the norm of most betas. She was nothing but enthusiastic about trying these new things, though. Anything to help her husband through his rough patches. It didn’t bother her at all.

Some nights, though, Arin could do nothing but writhe in misery. The knowledge of what his body was truly aching and preparing in futility for was so painfully obvious, and when the heats lasted this long he was plagued by nightmares of thick cocks and long fingers, of a knot so big he could barely take it and a voice so sensual it haunted his waking mind.

Dan drove Arin home yet again – Suzy could not break away from her conference call and mouthed her gratitude to Dan as he caught her glance on the way out. He nodded solemnly, but she had already turned away.

The car ride was one of the biggest tests Dan had ever been put through on this earth.

There was no medicine for him. No cure to his disease. His thirst could not be quenched or subdued. He had turned to weed and to drinks early on in life, hearing through the grapevines how the substances worked as inadvertent depressants to the lust. Once he had sobered up for good, he practiced daily meditation and listened to captivating music in his spare time – they did the trick, too.

But this… there was nothing to help him now. He was trapped by the traffic, by the proximity, by the overwhelming sweetness radiating off of his best friend. Arin – honestly oblivious to Dan’s tortured state – was curled up into himself, whining and trilling his voice randomly as the car bumped or when they took an abrupt turn. His forehead supplied a steady stream of sweat beads that flowed down his scrunched up face, traversing down his hyper-sensitive neck and disappearing below the shirt that clung to his muscles. He was breathing so heavily, and almost all of his exhales at this point were pitched in such a way that the faintest of whimpers could be heard. His swollen, leaking member was pushed up against his stomach, and the friction of the ride was enough to keep him from palming at himself. He was already soaking through his pants just enough to leave traces on the passenger seat – a fact that Dan noted with intense fear as he thought of having to clean the substance from the fabric before the smell drove him off a cliff.

Dan had never wanted to fuck someone so hard in his life, and his eyes glassed over as the guilt replaced his vigor. He swallowed hard, furrowing his brow and pushing harder on the gas.

As though it wasn’t bad enough already, Arin started to formulate choppy sentences: he let out random words and phrases periodically, ranging from “fuck”s to, “oh, god, so hot”. Every word sounded like complete sin coming from his swelled lips, and it was getting borderline impossible for Dan to ignore. He wasn’t even trying to conceal the raging boner pushing up against his zipper – Arin’s attention was obviously elsewhere.

A particularly sudden brake (courtesy of a lane-change from an asshole with no blinker) and Arin’s dick pushed into his stomach with renewed force. He clenched his whole body and moaned unabashedly, feeling the scent burst out of him from both ends.

Dan almost choked. It hit him in a huge cloud, clogging his nostrils and blowing his pupils out. He almost came in his pants.

It was finally too much.

Dan took the next exit that came up and pulled off into the right shoulder. Arin noticed their deceleration and finally looked up, eyes glazed over and forehead slick. He looked first at their surroundings, then at Dan as he unbuckled himself in a hurry and rushed out the door. The singer walked several feet away and leaned against a random sign.

Arin considered getting up, truly, but the rush of blood to his dick at the site of Dan’s lithe form put a halt to the notion. He curled back into himself and basked in his hot misery for several more minutes until Dan rejoined him. Arin looked at him through his fingers, but Dan stared at the steeling wheel in apparent frustration. He let out a quiet, “Sorry. Just, needed air.” and started the car once more. They reached Arin’s house within five minutes.

The engine died down as Dan pulled into the driveway. He looked over at Arin for the first time since their unscheduled stop and noticed that his friend was showing no signs of exiting the vehicle. He gulped apprehensively, “Arin? Bud? You gonna be okay?” His concern for the man overcame his ever-present lust.

Arin groaned in response, trying to gain his composure enough to head into his house but failing miserably. He knew they were home, and knew he needed to get up eventually; he just wasn’t ready for Dan’s disgusted reaction to the mess Arin had made in his seat. He withdrew further into himself at the thought.

Dan gingerly touched Arin’s forearm and the omega instantly whined at the contact. Dan withdrew his hand like he had been burned, face flushing at the reaction he’d inadvertently ripped from the man.

After several more moments of pensive inaction, Dan got out of the car and walked over to Arin’s side. He swallowed his own desire, fear, and guilt and opened his best friend’s door. Arin looked up weakly at him, understanding immediately that Dan meant to help him inside. He had always been so selfless, so quick to help.

Arin resigned himself to the assistance and slowly brought his feet back down to the floor, knees creaking at the motion. That movement alone released a bubble of aroma that Dan choked down with determination. Arin unbuckled himself and sat up straight, finally looking fully at his friend beside him. Dan offered his hand like a limousine chauffer, ready to escort Arin into his abode. Arin took his hand and Dan’s eyes widened at the sheer temperature of it. His hands had been balled into fists for so long, no wonder they were burning up.

Soon after, Arin gathered his strength and let Dan help him to his feet, though he was notably weak like a newborn deer. He almost faltered as soon as he stood and, because of this, Dan decided to wrap his arm around Arin’s ribs and under his shoulders to help hoist him into the house. The proximity was enough to make Dan’s head spin and his eyes watered with the pressure of the taboo scent so close to him. Weakened and exhausted, Arin let his friend lead him into the house and to his bedroom with little thought to anything but the cooling, slick drops making their way down his thighs.

Dan helped Arin into a sitting position on the edge of his bed, but not before asking if he should lay down any towels or blankets, to which Arin blankly shook his head. Once Arin was sitting on his own and his head was lulling back and forth slightly, Dan stood back and examined the man: his skin was pink everywhere that was visible, and his jeans had soaked to a much darker shade in a gradient down towards his thighs. His eyes were almost shut, but Dan could still make out the distinct glaze of raw lust that clouded his rich brown eyes. Dan could muster the strength to ignore so much of this, but when his eyes happened upon the unmistakable sight of Arin’s swollen dick peeking out over the edge of his jeans where his shirt had ridden up, he felt many of the safety locks on his sanity snap open. His eyes lingered for too long, and even Arin in his hazy state followed the piercing stare to see his own unintentional voyeurism. Without covering himself, Arin simply looked back up at Dan and watched with fascination as the man swallowed hard. His jaw clenched and his fists balled at his side, Dan tore his eyes back up to Arin’s face and the eye contact was the most tense the two had ever shared.

The fierce look in Dan’s eyes was so unmistakable, so obvious, that the realization of it all hit Arin hard enough to wind him: Dan was an alpha.

The sentence rolled around inside his head several times, and the dawning of what it all meant sent a crashing wave through his body. His dick throbbed visibly, his eyes widened like he’d been struck, and a fresh, hot stream of slick released an even stronger cloud of his scent into the air right at Dan. The smell ripped a moan from Dan’s throat before he could stop it, and the domino effect between the two was spiraling out of control: the moan from Dan rippled through Arin’s body like electricity, then the resulting moan from Arin had Dan’s thick cock leaking instantaneously. They both knew if they didn’t get a grip on this chemical reaction soon it could be entirely out of their hands.

So Dan had to be the stronger of the two, and he backed slowly away from the bed before bolting out the front door like a scared, pre-pubescent teenager.

Arin flopped back onto the bed and immediately rushed both hands towards his pants, freeing his erection and fingering himself before Dan had even unlocked the car. He pumped himself and thrust into himself without satisfaction for what seemed like hours until the eventual curtain of exhaustion took him over.

Dan sat in his car and immediately locked the door in a weak attempt to keep himself from running back inside. His head dropped against the steering wheel in defeat as he caught his breath, but his respite was short-lived as the overwhelming scent of pure Arin took him over yet again. He looked around in desperation and locked onto the soaked passenger seat cushion with seething frustration.

Justifying to himself that neither Suzy nor Arin would mind him using their driveway as temporary storage, Dan fled the car once again and made his way down the street in an aimless rush, dialing a cab and fisting his hand through his hair as the breeze cooled his head.

Suzy cleaned the car for him the next morning.

 

\---------------------

  
Arin stayed bedridden for the rest of the week and Suzy took plenty of time off to care for him. If he didn’t come out of it soon, they feared he would need to see a specialist. The heats that wracked the body for this long were often very hard on an omega, especially one that had been under the medication for so long. The body was constantly rejecting the drugs and fighting to release its true nature, so when the heat won out like this it consumed the person for as long as it possibly could.

No one at the grump office mentioned it except lightly in passing, and Dan eventually stopped coming in to work with little to do but miss his friend. That fateful night played out in his head so vividly and so often he couldn’t even get off to it – it was too real.

His pent up rejection of his own homosexuality coupled with the closeted nature of his alpha status had always been a deadly cocktail for the poor man. So few people knew, and every new person that he kept it from added another stab of guilt to his already frail heart. Brian had found out impressively quickly. He was a genius – a fact he loved to make known – and he eventually was able to comfort Dan in his own, abrasive ways. Dan admired Brian’s open lifestyle so greatly, but he never imagined being able to come to terms with it with such strength. He chose to keep it buried so as to never hurt or take advantage of anyone dear to him. He released the tightly wound frustration when he did take lovers, though those occurrences became much less frequent as the years went on and the satisfaction of beta partners waned. He yearned so painfully for the sinful touch of an omega bursting with heat, but he would never allow himself the pleasure of their company. He feared what would happen if he finally lost control. He’d rather suffer the rest of his life than know the embrace of an omega.

Arin tested his boundaries every fucking day. The flirtatious joking would be enough to pique even a beta’s interest, but Arin always had to up the ante: fleeting touches after jokes or in passing, heated looks during a particularly sultry comment, flexing muscles and adorable laughs every damn day. Not to mention the smell, fuck. Arin’s scent was so different from anything Dan had come across, and he had had plenty of omegas trying to goad him into ruts in his days. But there was something so intoxicating and sickly sweet about Arin’s musky scent that Dan could never ignore. He smelt it before anyone else –even Suze – and he was around it so damn often once Arin marked the entire grump space in their first year together. Dan had been doomed from day one.

But now that he had shown his weakness to his closest friend, and Arin had recognized the weakness for what it truly was, Dan had no idea how he could face him again. Arin would probably think Dan had kept so close to him all this time just to feed off the drug of his heat and get off to his suffering, which was not entirely untrue. Dan was waiting with pure trepidation for the coming days when Arin would recover, return to work, and have “the talk” with Dan. They would have to be so much more distant with each other, so much less familiar, lest anyone realize an omega and a super horny alpha are acting so close. People would assume they were mating immediately.

Dan sighed as his lips lingered on the edge of his mug, tea piping hot and steaming against his glasses. Ross guffawed loudly, bringing him back to reality, and to the cold inevitability of the days to come.

 

\---------------------

  
Arin kept it from Suzy.

He knew he should tell her, and he knew she had probably filled in a few gaps after Dan’s abandoned car had needed tending to, but she was gracious enough to avoid the subject until Arin was almost out of his heat.

In the latter half of his vacation from hell Arin didn’t even bother with physical stimulation. Nothing could wrack cum out of him at this point, and the undeniable longing to be filled by a knot he could never have was sickening enough to drag him out of the lusty fog.

How could he ever deserve Suzy? She stayed by him so diligently but gave him space whenever it became obvious he needed it. She kept him hydrated and gave him all the distracting company he needed as the days trudged on. The unspoken words of the night with Dan choked him, and he was never able to let them out.

She would leave him if he knew how sick and desperate he really was. Dan would call him a whore for being so overt and so wanton. He couldn’t believe how he’d acted: the memories of the night came back to him in full clarity the next morning that he awoke, thinking clear enough to remember the shame of the previous night. He’d cried himself back to sleep and tried to dwell on it as little as possible. He was already in enough agony.

He knew Dan would probably be gone by now. No one would tell Arin until he was better. But Dan had packed his bags – surely – and gone back to visit his parents or get out of the state with any excuse. He’d seen Arin at his weakest point and what had Arin done? He’d moaned for him like a slut just because he saw the effect his overwhelming stench had had on the poor alpha. All this time Arin had been so oblivious, but he must have been putting his friend through absolute hell: all the heats Dan had selflessly helped him with, all the rides home in a hotbox of Arin’s musk, all the embraces and the lingering touches and the sexual tension Arin had been providing. Dan had sacrificed so much for him, and now he knew Arin for what he really was.

Even after all the guilt and sorrow Arin could still close his eyes and draw to mind the thick outline of his best friend’s cock, hard and begging to bury itself into the closest thing possible.

God… Arin was sick.

 

\---------------------

  
Two months pass. Dan obviously doesn’t flee the country and Arin obviously doesn’t fire Dan. The two reconcile with complete disregard for the dreaded night. They wipe it from their minds and start over fresh, leaving their friends blissfully ignorant and in the mindset that nothing had changed between the duo. Arin was still the reserved omega who tried to keep his inevitable heats to himself, and Dan was still the sexually active beta who didn’t so much as bat an eye to his omega best friend. Arin’s battered old car had been laid to rest and he was now entirely dependent on either his wife or Dan for carpooling.

The two continued on in this way for as long as they could. The only skeptical audience member to their admittedly impressive charade was Arin’s darling wife, who watched her husband retreat deeper into himself as the weeks went by. She took careful note of how pathetically ashamed Arin acted during his heats in the coming months, and how Dan avoided eye contact with Arin an unnatural amount. The two had a chemistry the entire group was well-adjusted to, but Suzy was observant and perceptive as ever and as in all things. She watched them closely and, day by day, the ever-present smile faded from her face as realization dawned on her and pity for her husband and her friend overtook most other thoughts.

She wanted to help. They wanted to keep pretending for as long as possible.

 

\---------------------

  
Brian notices the subtle changes in Dan’s demeanor before anyone else, and he is not hesitant in pulling is friend aside one day and pointedly demanding an explanation. Dan fumbles for words, but he gets the gist across with half-finished sentences, stutters, blushes, and a lot of fidgeting.

Brian nods in comprehension as the gravity of the situation falls on him and he puts a reassuring, firm hand on Dan’s shoulder. They go out for coffee and Dan slowly comes out of his shell, giving Brian more and more details until he has bared his soul to his old friend.

Alphas are territorial in so many ways and platonic relationships were not excluded. Brian had felt protective over Dan since they first crossed paths and he realized that Dan was hiding behind the popular assumption that he was a beta with a higher sex drive than most. He quickly caught on to the way Dan drifted off into space when conversations turned to talk of classes and sexuality. Dan’s eyes would darken minutely, but Brian could see it. He could see the way Dan changed when he met Arin, too. The undeniable effect the omega had on the poor man was saddening, and Brian empathized whole-heartedly with his friend, even if they rarely spoke of it. Dan’s own territorial quirks would crescendo in his new friend’s presence and his more alpha-esque traits slipped through the cracks carelessly in the coming years.

Brian felt responsible for keeping conversations moving when they lingered too long on either Dan or Arin when the two were in each other’s company. He knew the warning signs of attraction and – being the only third party in the grump family to know the complexity of the situation – he entrusted himself to being the keeper of their peace.

So, Dan sat subdued in front of his alpha guardian, spent from his ranting and emotional turmoil. Brian stared at the broken man in front of him and thought of how painful it must be to live a life away from the natural attraction that the body cries out for every damn day. His admiration and sympathy for Dan grew tenfold.

“Talk to him.”

Dan shook his head and smooshed his hair down over his face to avoid any and all eye contact. Brian repeated himself with more force to his tone. A petulant groan clawed out of Dan’s mouth and his head fell to the table as he sulked.

He had always hated how right Brian was.

 

\---------------------

  
“What’s wrong?”

Suzy was always so attentive to everyone’s woes. She tended to her friends like a shepherd to the flock, and everyone was undyingly grateful for her consideration. Arin was the luckiest of all as her scrutinizing concern never overlooked him. She saw through him plain as day, though he tried his darndest to play the fool. She was having none of it today.

“Honestly, honey, it’s time for you to tell me.”

Arin was sat in the very same place that he had been when Dan and he shared whatever strange moment they had, only this time his loving wife sat beside him, holding his hand, staring him down with unwavering determination and concern.

“Why do you know me so well? Can’t you just read my mind at this point.” Arin muttered weakly, not even a question at this point. He met his wife’s powerful stare with a half-hearted smile that struck a chord in Suzy’s chest. She could see how truly tired he was.

“Maybe I just want to hear you say it.” She smiled back honestly at him. He was so damn lucky.

“It’s so hard. So fucking hard to be around him.”

Suzy nodded patiently.

“I don’t know how much longer I can take it. No one knows. I guess he never wanted any of us to know.”

She nodded once more, replying, “It’s his choice to disclose it.”

Arin knew this, and she knew he knew it, but it still had to be said.

He continued on, “I’m so sorry. I wish I could be stronger for you. I don’t ever want you to think you’re not enough.”

Suzy stopped him there, curling up against his side and cooing away any further words of self-deprecation that threatened to pour out of the down-trodden man. Tears welled in his eyes and she squeezed him tighter. “Arin, I love you. I always have, I always will. It’s not a matter of whether I’m “enough” for you or not: you are a complex and beautiful creature with needs not easily satisfied. Physically and emotionally, you need a mate. I can be parts of that for you, and so can he.”

Arin let the complexity of what she’d said seep into him as he swashed it around in his mind.

She really was too good for him.

 

\---------------------

  
7 months ago: Arin reads a particularly spiteful comment regarding his lack of animation aloud and lets the corners of his mouth fall steeply. Dan takes note of the username. Every time the name pops up on their reddit, comment section, or stream chat Dan lets out an almost inaudible growl – it rumbles up from deep within his diaphragm. Arin never hears it, but he’s comforted by the way Dan instinctively draws closer to him each time.

5 months before that: Dan wins a V.S. episode and jumps up in gleeful triumph. His shirt rides up as he bounces like a child and his taut skin exposes itself. Arin licks his lips and feels a slight shift deep in his gut. The dancing man offers a hand to Arin like a true gentleman and, as soon as their hands cup together, Dan has hoisted Arin off the couch and picked him up around his plump waist. His thin, long arms wrap around Arin tightly and he leans himself backwards, pulling Arin upward and airborn before the younger grump can fully react. Dan sets Arin back on the ground within seconds and plops back down on the couch still laughing brightly and without pause. Arin laughs loudly alongside him, but the sudden display of strength haunted the omega for weeks.

Exactly one year before that: Suzy flattens her palms over Arin’s eyes as he sits slumped at his desk, his tablet screen a mess of doodles and notes. She giggles proudly before he bats her hands away. He looks behind him and cranes his neck up to meet her in a tender but chaste kiss, both newlyweds glowing as their eyes stay locked. Dan watches furtively from the kitchen. He was still new and the last thing he wanted was to step on any toes around here. His chest throbbed uncomfortably as he watched on. Arin felt dark eyes on him but chose to refocus on his drawings, instead. Later that same day the two men found themselves alone in the recording room and Dan pointedly put his arm over the back of the couch. By their third episode, his arm had fallen to Arin’s shoulders. Neither man made any sign of moving out of this position, though Arin eventually found himself dragging his fingers down his throat. Dan smiled without thought and hummed at the sweetness surrounding him.

 

\---------------------

  
The last four or five decades gave way to the largest shift of societal norms that humankind had seen since the Dark Ages. The systematic stereotypes (domineering, top-of-the-food-chain Alphas, reserved but courtly betas, and sexually submissive omegas) had been so deeply ingrained into most societies across the planet that when the initial wave of change first hit in the early 50’s, most just laughed it off as a radical outcry for class equality. Betas and omegas had always felt lesser by birth, so it was only natural that the dogmatic caste system would soon feel the power of rebellion. The medical community began diagnosing the entirety of the population, simplifying the heats and the mating and the knotting and everything else under a blanket of scientific jargon and medicinal solutions. The back-breaking straw came in the form of a recent census signaling the doom of the system itself: betas outnumbered the others almost tenfold.

Being a “rare” alpha still prevailed as being somewhat admirable – this was mostly in consideration of the fact that there was no medical aid for their “ailments” and “symptoms”. Having to function as a regular member of society while trudging through the burden of their nature was still seen as a sign of strength. Omegas, however, had plenty of answers to their problems. The capitalist market for different suppressants offered a wide variety of pills. There were support groups for the inevitable emptiness that a lack of mating brought on. Unfortunately for most, the grossly negative social stigmas associated with the omega population echoed through world no matter how the activists pleaded against it.

Being a beta meant being a human. Being an alpha meant being a strong beta with a heavier sexual appetite. Being an omega meant being a weak beta who can only hide their shame with medication and deception.

Dan never felt a degree stronger than any of his other friends. Arin tried so hard to hide.

 

\---------------------

  
Two grueling weeks pass with a painful amount of inaction from everyone involved.

Dan knows he has to follow Brian’s advice.

Arin knows he has to act on what Suzy shared with him.

It’s getting harder and harder to ignore.

 

\---------------------

  
Danny walks in to the office ready to record with Ross and choke down the encompassing presence of Arin in the building. Arin goes about his day primarily on his computer, ear-shattering music cupping his ears to drown out the laughter floating in from down the hall. He swallows frequently around a painfully dry throat, feeling a clawing anticipation for the day.

Barry laughed and peeked over his monitor, getting Arin’s attention, “I guess we’re going on a surprise trip to Jared’s place tonight. You should see the e-vite he sent me, man.” Arin’s eyes betray his unenthused reaction. “But, you should probably stay put tonight and get some rest. You’ve looked kinda out of it this week.”

Arin finally made eye contact with his friend at the comment. His eyes softened and Barry’s expression was so genuine, so compassionate, so understanding – Arin’s cheeks turned up and he smiled appreciatively, nodding his head and returning to his work. Barry’s eyes lingered on Arin before he dragged himself away from his desk to find Ross and Dan, his mind still flitting back to the image of Arin’s eyes drained of happiness.

Ross and Dan could be found giggling to each other on the couch, stuck in a world of their own. Barry admired their lightheartedness from the window before disrupting their playthrough. Ross chastised Barry for intruding on their episodes, claiming that the two were on a “crazy wicked roll”, but Dan appreciated the break and excused himself to the kitchen to grab himself something to drink. His throat was gnarred from the abuse of his recent vocal work – a pain he was well adjusted to – but today it was particularly potent.

He passed through the main space of the office with long strides as he pointedly ignored the corner of the room where the source of his emotional agony sat. He recognized his inability to even so much as look at Arin and tsked himself pitifully under his breath as he dug through the fridge.

Dan’s tall form danced through his peripheral against his will and before Arin knew it he was turning his music up and leaning further into his tablet, away from the obstructive force across the room.

Ross and Barry entered the office and immediately took note of the forced awkwardness in the room and at the extreme distance between the two men who were so commonly stuck together like magnets. They began gathering their belongings and bidding a quiet farewell to both Dan and Arin, hoping that the tension in the room would be fixed before long.

As soon as they were gone the atmosphere got even heavier, if it was even possible.

Arin tapped his pencil against his desk loudly while his other hand scrolled through a random slideshow of uninteresting art. Dan leaned his hips against the counter with his arms crossed as he impatiently waited for his water to boil. There was ample time for the two to talk – to clear the air and speak their minds. They both knew this perfectly well, and yet there they stood in all their fear and all their stubbornness. Someone would have to crack first, right?

Three hours later and still no cracks. The sun had set and the others were long gone: Suzy and Holly had joined up with them in their convoy to Los Angeles and were guaranteed to be gone until the next day. The cliché of forced alone time should’ve given Dan the strength to confront the issue but he instead chose to ball up on a beanbag with two blankets, tea, and his laptop for the remainder of the evening. It was unspoken at this point, but both men understood the agreement that Dan would still drive Arin home when Suzy was absent. The ticking time bomb of that interaction was drawing close to the end and Arin was wiggling uncomfortably in the office chair he’d rooted himself to all day.

He stood and stretched his legs, feeling his spine give louds ‘pop’s from the stasis. He finally dared to glance over and immediately regretted it… Dan looked so snug and darling in his home-made cocoon. His hair fanned out wildly around his headset and his cheeks were pleasantly pink from the warmth of his nest. The chocolate brown of his irises was dulled and glassy under his drooping eyelids. He was perfect.

Dan felt the heat of eyes on him and struggled to not look back and meet them. His chest flared with renewed tension at the thought of Arin finally acknowledging him. He swallowed for the thousandth time that day.

“When do you want to go?”

Arin’s voice croaked slightly after hardly being used all day. He tried to sound casual, hoping he didn’t tip Dan off to his crippling anxiety.

Dan finally craned his neck and locked his eyes onto Arin’s. The shock that passed between them had to be tangible, it was so crisp. His eyes opened wider, as if he couldn’t believe Arin was speaking to him. The expression drove a stake into Arin’s heart but he buried his ego and tried to clarify, “I don’t mean to rush you if you’re… busy, or whatever.” Nailed it, Arin thought bitterly.

Dan swiped his eyes over Arin’s whole face and searched for a hidden meaning he wasn’t sure he wanted to find. “No, man, we can go whenever you want, I’m good.”

Arin nodded petulantly and wandered over to his desk to shut down his work for the day. His tablet took the longest to power down, and the last blinking lights on the screen seemed to be communicating to Arin that they believed in him. He gulped audibly.

Ten minutes later Dan was opening the passenger door for Arin and watching the way the man’s muscles shifted as he climbed in to his seat.

The drive was as bitterly silent as the entirety of the day. Neither of them wanted to squander this chance to reconcile, but the wall between them was so daunting and so horrifying. This was water neither of them ever expected to be treading into and if they dared to try it would certainly be sink or swim.

Arin had never been a heavy drinker but he still knew the mindset one had to be in to stomach a shot of sour liquor. A few moments of talking yourself into it, a split second of fear shrouded by determination, then the intensity of slamming it down your throat and trying to taste as little of it as possible before the vomit reflex kicked in. A perfect analogy for this moment, he decided.

“You could’ve told me you were an alpha. You know I would never judge you.”

Well. That is not how he actually intended to start out. That was more akin to lifting the shotglass to your lips and, at the last second, splashing the putrid liquid on your unsuspecting friend’s face.

Dan reacted coolly, all things considered. Arin had been brave enough to tear down the first brick, at least.

“I don’t ever tell anyone. If they find out, it is what it is. I don’t care enough, I guess.”

Arin appreciated that Dan didn’t seem to take great offense to his outburst of a question. His throat rumbled with the slightest laugh, causing Dan to cock an eyebrow in his direction.

“I’m not laughing at that, or at you. Just – I can’t believe it. All the signs were there. The infamous Danny Sexbang really was an alpha all this time. Fucking fitting.” Arin giggled throughout the sentence and Dan’s cheeks warmed at the sound.

“I guess so.” Arin saw Dan smiling lightly as he returned his focus to the road and he took proud note of the way the man’s posture seemed to relax by a fraction. That wasn’t so bad.

The conversation diverged into a stream of joking mockery at some of Dan’s more heated encounters with girls in the past and how perfect the Sexbang demeanor fit him. Before long they were almost completely off the topic, ending up on a discussion of dry sandwiches and Brian’s dicketry.

Dan had been humming happily at how at ease the men had grown in the short span of the car ride, but he soon realized – with intense dread – that they were a mere five minutes away from Arin’s humble abode and they had barely scratched the surface of what they actually needed to talk about. He felt a thick lump form at the base of his throat and he fought the urge to swallow compulsively around it. Arin had been brave enough to start them off, but Dan obviously had to take the next step.

Arin stared out the window lazily, letting the passing lights and signs blur across his vision. He absent-mindedly saw his exit come into sight and pass just as quickly as it came. The realization that they had missed the off-ramp didn’t dawn on him for another minute, but when it did, he just turned to Dan in questioning silence.

Dan’s entire demeanor had changed in the blink of an eye: his long fingers wrapped tight around the steering wheel, his scruff jaw was set tight, and his eyes were more alert and focused than they had been for a long time. Arin admired the view in close parallel to the night from weeks ago and he felt his stomach flip.

“We can talk when I get to where we’re going.” Dan piped up, cutting off any questions before Arin could even get them out.

Arin nodded twice, slowly and dazed, and went back to looking out the window.

Twenty-five minutes pass in anguish and silence. Dan switched back and forth between feeling intensely determined by his choice and terribly guilty for forcing Arin into this situation. Arin, meanwhile, just lulled himself into a state of pseudo-meditation as he fought off the gnawing tendrils of heat playing at his chest. He didn’t particularly care to drill Dan with twenty questions – he trusted his friend.

Dan finally pulls off in a random stretch of dimly lit freeway. The exit wraps around and curves off away from the interstate, rolling on into the dark distance. Dan kept on this road for another five minutes before he made an abrupt left-turn, leading the two onto a dirt path toward a flat expanse of land with no manmade lights to be seen.

Arin fully took in their surroundings and he finally allowed himself to feel a rush of anxiety. If this was where Dan had decided to confront him on all of his heartache and pain, Arin supposed it would be a good place to dump his body afterwards.

The car slowed to a stop and the engine died. Dan let the keys fall to the center console. He let out an audible breath before he unbuckled himself and turned towards Arin. “Do you want to talk inside or outside? It’s still pretty warm out.”

Arin appreciated the bluntness, “Outside. My legs are cramping.”

The men exited the vehicle sluggishly and met at the hood of the car – Dan jumped up and sat on the edge while Arin chose to lean back against it and stare straight up at the moon above them. They were right in front of a long field of plain green grass. No lovely flowers, no spectacular trees or beautiful fireflies… just grass and the moonlight of a plain summer’s night.

The silence between them was finally comfortable as they shared in the serenity of the moment. The moon cast an unearthly glow to Arin’s soft face as he kept his head upturned staring at the night sky. Dan chose to stare unabashedly at the man next to him and – for once – he didn’t fret over anyone noticing.

“You’re beautiful.”

Arin hears it. He lets it roll around in his head over and over again. He feels the rush of warmth in his cheeks, but he can’t bring himself to look over in surprise. His eyes shine brighter against the moonlight.

“Honest to god. I’m sorry for everything.”

At that, Arin was forced to turn. He met Dan’s longing stare head-on. “You aren’t allowed to be sorry for anything.”

“Oh?” Dan tilts his head slightly, “Why not?”

Arin gulps again. “You can apologize for making me blush and shit, but that’s it.” They both smile, but Dan refuses to let the conversation drift back to less serious territory.

“I never wanted to make you feel uncomfortable or like a slab of meat. You’ve always been my best friend, I just can’t help the way I look at you.” Arin’s whole face warms up at that, and something in his heart flutters against his ribs. “So, I am sorry.”

Dan looks up at the moon in a similar pose to Arin’s from moments ago. Arin tries to taste his words and make sure they’re just right before he lets them loose. “Danny. Look at me?”

Dan’s eyebrows pursed together before he slowly turned back towards Arin. The look they shared then wasn’t electric or painful or sharp. It was entirely warm, filled with unspoken words bursting at the seams between the two.

“I love the way you look at me. Like I can be more than just an omega, but at the same time, it’s like… totally cool that I am an omega. You know? Validating, welcoming. Shit like that.” Arin was embarrassed at his lack of finesse – Dan was so good at this, what the fuck.

Dan leaned his weight onto one hand and shifted himself closer to Arin, towering over him with the added height of the car. Arin looked so fragile and gorgeous in this moment. He was always hiding so much but he could never hide enough.

“It is absolutely, most totally radical that you are an omega. You are perfect, Arin.” The words fell towards the man on the ground like a sweet melody and he whined in the back of his throat at the immediate reaction they had on his heart. Dan smiled affectionately as his friend brought a hand up to paw at the blush dusting his cheeks.

Arin let out a string of words muffled by the cover of his clammy hands. Dan scooted closer and took the liberty to rest his chin on Arin’s shoulder, letting out a “hmm?” near his ear.

Arin huffed again but lets his hands pull away just enough to let the words leave clearly, “Can you just make a move on me already or what?”

Dan leaned back and watched Arin closely. He was blushing furiously, squirming where he stood, and fidgeting his hands against his face impatiently. There was no sickly sweet smell clogging the air, no tightness in his chest, no warmth emanating from his very being. Dan smiled wide and excited – Arin was not in a heat, he genuinely wanted Dan right here and right now for who he was.

Dan’s feet landed on the soft ground and he took a firm hold of Arin’s hand, moving to stand in front of him and effectively trapping him against the hood of the car.

The two locked eyes again and this was an entirely different feeling. They both felt the beginning of a warmth and connection that they would never be able to put into words but could both perfectly understand.

No more pussy footing around. With the big, goofy smile still painted on his face, Dan leaned forward slowly as the glow of Arin’s round, warm face came closer and closer. Arin returned the smile one millisecond before they finally made contact.

 

\---------------------

  
Suzy laughed politely at another joke she didn’t fully understand. The room was boring her but she knew everyone was having a grand old time.

She tapped at her phone to illuminate the time, seeing how late it had already gotten.

She looked out the window nearest her and saw how blue and bright the moon was tonight.

She felt a pang in her chest that was not entirely painful but not exactly pleasant, either. She hummed one note thoughtfully but was unable to complete a melody. The single note hung in the air and in her head, but she shook the thoughts away and returned her attention to the smiling people surrounding her.

She was going to be okay.

 

\---------------------

  
It was close to three years ago.

Arin watched the lanky man at the desk carefully: he had both of his hands cupped over the large headphones on his head, his hair was poofing out in chaotic curls around the obstruction, and his eyes were closed in sheer concentration. As Arin watched, the other abruptly slapped a button on the keyboard in front of him and a red light appeared, indicating the recording. One second later, Dan opened his mouth and a string of perfect, seemingly random melodies fell out, one right after the other. Dan would pause briefly between each new chord and quickly make adjustments to the program in front of him. Within five minutes he unplugged the headset and let the song flow from the computer’s speakers.

Arin watched closer as Dan let all of his harmonies overlay and flow through the air. He turned back and glanced innocently at Arin – silently gauging his reaction. The music wrapped around Arin’s head and sung to him sweetly. His eyes drifted closed and he could hardly believe he was hearing the same piece of music that Brian had just orchestrated not but a half an hour ago. Before he knew it, the song ended. He opened his eyes and saw Dan staring at him like a nervous, eager puppy.

Arin felt a hollow surge through his chest that he’d never felt before. He tried to bring the feeling to mind later, in the solitude of his bedroom, but no matter how hard he thought back he could not replicate the sensation.

He felt it again the next morning when Dan excitedly shared with him the next chunk of the song he had completed.

Arin shrugged his confusion away and simplified the feeling to admiration… with a hint of adoration.

Six months later Arin is stomping his feet on the ground like an ape and shaking the controller in his hand so violently that the cord tethered to it swung through the air like a sound-wave.

Dan sat next to him in hysterics, clutching his stomach and wiping away the salty tears stinging the sides of his crinkled eyes.

Arin calmed himself down ten minutes later, only to be lulled into a false sense of security. The game cheated him out of his victory yet again and – before Dan could react – Arin was throwing a figurine at the window across the room. He was cursing and laughing and fuming and smiling all at once and Dan had never seen such an array of human emotion before.

The laughs they shared would not die down for at least an hour to come. While they sat shoulder-to-shoulder, complaining of aching abs and sore cheeks, Dan absent-mindedly draped a hand over his clavicle. He held his fingers there as though feeling for his heart. A half-empty, half-full feeling was gnawing at his chest and he thought he was having a panic attack of some sort.

Arin got up and offered to make Dan a piping hot cup of tea as a token of good faith for putting up with his tantrum. The compassionate sparkle in the younger man’s eye struck a chord deep in Dan’s chest and the half-full feeling turned into a bursting-over-the-edges-full feeling for a split second – the indescribable ache returned as soon as Arin turned away and left the room.

Dan zoned out staring at the floor as his fingers rubbed mindlessly at his heart.

 

\---------------------

  
Arin let Dan kiss him with everything the man had in him.

Years of frustration, exhaustion, anticipation, desire, despair, confusion, and sheer adoration hit him in waves as Dan bared himself to Arin. He kissed him like a hungry animal. His lips pushed just hard enough to leave as little space between their mouths as possible while still taking care to not smoosh Arin’s lips entirely. Within seconds, Dan’s long fingers came up to cup Arin’s cheeks like he was a delicate statue, and all Arin could think in that moment was of the same slender fingers curling over the bulging ear-pieces of a headset.

Dan pushed his body as flush against Arin’s as he could. He knew that oxygen deprivation was a very realistic downside to their proximity, so he relinquished his suction of Arin’s mouth in favor of leaning their foreheads together for just a brief rest. Both men kept their eyes half-lidded as they panted out puffs of air against the other. Dan kept his hands on Arin’s face like he was scared the image before him would shatter into a million pieces, and his thumbs stroked patterns into the swell of Arin’s cheeks. Arin’s expression flitted between disbelief and amused wonder – a mix of furrowed brows and chuckles of acceptance. Dan watched his dearest friend as the cogs turned in his head and he was brought back to simpler times. A glitched out pachinko machine, a destroyed Megatron doll, a very complex and very beautiful Arin.

Deeming that they had taken a long enough break, Arin decided to attack next. He pushed his lips back against Dan’s suddenly and threw his arms around the man’s neck to wrap him in close and keep him from pulling too far back.

Dan huffed out a laugh at the sudden display but it was caught between their swollen lips.

Dropping his hands to Arin’s hips, Dan pushed with his whole body until Arin was supported almost entirely by the hood of the car and his feet were tip-toeing on the grass. Arin grunted at the push but pulled Dan even closer as their proximity settled. The validating sound gave Dan all the permission he needed to suck in Arin’s bottom lip and lick a hot stripe against it. Needless to say, Arin approved.

Both sets of hands started moving fervently and without much purpose but to cover as much surface area as possible. Arin’s hot, plump fingers tangled into the bird’s nest on Dan’s head, while Dan’s skeletal hands rubbed up and down Arin’s sides and lower back in a frenzy. Every point of contact shared between the two was a hyper-sensitive sensation that neither had never even dreamt plausible.

Only two or three minutes had passed when the deep, rolling tsunami of unbridled heat bombarded Arin’s entire being. His head fell back against the card with a loud ‘whump’ as the feeling winded him and he had to break away from Dan to gulp down a mouthful of air. His eyes were bugged out and his face was flushing at alarming speed. Dan – obviously – began panicking for all of five seconds before the same sickly sweet smell he had grown so painfully accustomed to over the last three years hit him in an entirely new and foreign way: he no longer just smelt Arin, he felt him. The smell translated into a taste that lingered on his lips where his saliva still pooled, it coursed through his blood with a warmth and pressure he had never experienced, it fogged his mind in an elating sort of way. He felt Arin leaking into the air around him as it radiated off of the gasping man beneath him.

Dan stared down at the expanse of man below him and his eyes latched on to every inch of exposed skin, feeling the undeniable urge to mark it all. So he did just that. In a flash his head dipped down and his teeth pulled lightly at the fleshy junction between Arin’s neck and shoulder. Woken from his heated daze by the surprise attack, Arin moaned out with a resonance he didn’t even know his voice could make. He wasn’t even granted time to blush over the sound before he felt Dan growl against the skin of his neck. The sound was so primal, so animal; it hit Arin like a truck.

Dan made quick work of Arin after that. It was like the exchange of sounds and the release of the heat was the final barrier holding the alpha back from complete domination, and now he felt practically obligated to complete this innate quest. He sucked furiously at Arin’s neck, the underside of his jaw, his shoulders, even the upper plateaus of his chest – anything and everything he could sink his teeth into. Arin was helpless. Moans were ripped from his throat at the display of power and he had never felt so deliciously helpless in his life. His shoulders were pinned flush against the car and his feet dangled weakly in the air. As though the position was not trapping enough already, Dan hitched up his right knee and pushed it up against the swell of Arin’s groin to keep his body locked in place.

Arin’s moans began to take on the shape of Dan’s name as the alpha released one shoulder and trailed his left hand down to grope the younger man’s ass. He kneaded the fleshy mounds like a cat and his long fingers squeezed just short of the point of pain. At the same time, his knee began turning and pushing ever-so-slightly against Arin’s now soaked erection. The double assault of friction and attention was driving Arin up the wall, and his entire body was screaming for a fulfillment he had deprived himself of for his entire life.

Dan’s mind was still clouded in by the sheer weight of Arin in the air. He knew he was losing control of his body but he could not bring himself to care enough to try to stop the onslaught. He watched it like an out-of-body experience: his fingers were snaking to the front of Arin’s pants and ripping them open (he will owe him some new jeans, for sure), his knee was pulsing slowly against the underside of Arin’s insanely hot cock, his eyes were one shade away from black and they were focused on Arin’s wanton face with sinful concentration.

Slender fingers came into contact with burning hot flesh, but they wouldn’t stop there. Dan shuffled his knee back just far enough to forcefully tug Arin’s jeans down to his knees – taking his boxers along with them – and brought it back up just close enough to keep Arin from rutting around too much. He needed him nice and still.  
Arin gasped faintly at the rush of cool air on his pink body. His cock drooled freely against his tummy and he could feel the cold slap of metal against his bare back and cheeks. The hot slick leaked out of him and down his thighs.

Dan took it all in. Arin had never seen such a look in his friend’s eyes before; Dan was a starving lion and Arin was his freshly-caught gazelle, ripe and ready for him. The alpha felt his chest heave at the sight of Arin’s soaked groin, and he knew he really was a goner. There was no rational part in his brain left to nag him, to tell him to make sure Arin was still okay with all of this, to double check that there was no one around. His thoughts drowned in Arin. His body tuned out the cool breeze and the moonlight and the entire world, focusing only on being rooted to the stunning man trapped below him. He flashed Arin one last passionate gaze before he ripped into the omega, letting his most instinctive craving run rampant. All at once Arin was engulfed in Dan. His mouth sucked and bit and kissed and licked everywhere available, throaty hums were vibrating through his lips as he mouthed at Arin, and one lone finger was finally, finally, trailing down to his entrance. The omega was a quivering mound of jelly before Dan even entered him for the first time. He was so slick and hot and needy, Dan was in heaven. He let one finger be swallowed by the greedy hole before he quickly added a second – and third – to push in alongside it. Arin shook his head desperately, his cock throbbing and his heart thumping against his ribcage. His mouth stayed open as he panted, moaned, cried out, and just gasped for as much air as he could. Dan made matters even worse on him by staring at his flushed face like an amused predator. He had the faintest smirk and his eyes were glowing with lust and hunger. He couldn’t hold himself back much longer.

The two left their humanity behind and leapt into the abyss together, saying goodbye to the normality of their strained friendship and their webs of lies.  
Dan removed his hands from Arin but shushed the man’s desperate whines by picking him up bridal-style and walking him out further into the grassy field ahead of them. Arin let himself be handled like Dan’s personal play-thing, being set down and splayed out in the grass like a limp doll. His chest was heaving visibly and the sheen of slick down his thighs reflected back sharply under the direct light. A flash of compassion sparkled over Dan’s ravenous expression before he leant down and kissed Arin tenderly, as though in a fairytale.

The trees in the distance shuddered as the wind passed through them and the grass whirred all around them. The clouds in the sky parted to allow the moon full view to the lovers splayed out beneath her. Stars twinkled in and out of existence, shining and radiant in the black of the night.

Dan stripped himself of every last scrap of clothing before doing the same to Arin. Their bodies glowed more like two incandescent spirits than like two sweat-soaked, humble humans. They admired each other like works of art. No inch was hidden, every detail bared.

Dan’s swollen member gleamed in the light, and Arin took careful note of its size and girth. The head was engorged in the most erotic way imaginable, and Arin felt an ache inside of him that knocked the breath out of his lungs. He reached mindlessly for the cock in front of him and, tugging once along the length, he tore a surprised moan out of the alpha’s throat. With a renewed vigor in his eyes at the scene before him, Dan slapped Arin’s arm away from him and took one of his wrists in each hand and pinned them harshly against the grass. Arin shivered at the cold contact of the ground and at the greedy look on Dan’s face.

“Ah!” Arin all but screamed out as Dan leaned back and down, licking thin stripes up Arin’s thighs. The taste of the heat was so indescribable and so intoxicating, Dan growled once again against the plump thighs. He lapped at the skin faster, moving steadily upwards to the source. Wasting no time on teasing or savoring, Dan dove right in. He licked and kissed and suckled at Arin’s most vulnerable, most searing point. Arin’s eyes had long since rolled back into his skull, his jaw slack and his body twitching in an ethereal state of constant orgasm. His body had forgone the buildup and simply plummeted straight into unending nirvana as his lover worked his mouth in a passion over his hole. He was so dazed that he didn’t even notice Dan’s absence until he felt an entirely new pressure against his body, and he looked down to see the thick head of his alpha’s gorgeous cock flush against his entrance. He whined miserably as he felt himself twitching, begging to be full. Dan exhausted every ounce of patience left in him as he forced himself to stay still, to watch Arin in this moment and to remember every detail as best he could before they crossed that final bridge. The breeze ruffled Arin’s blonde streak, his rich eyes shining brilliantly even under the heavy veil of lust. Arin was rutting against him despite still being pinned, and Dan was slowly sinking into the soaked hole before he realized it. Past the point of no return, Dan rolled his hips to meet the sporadic thrusting of the man beneath him. Arin shuddered and snapped his eyes shut as Dan’s thick head broke past the first ring and slid deep inside of him. Both men froze in place. For Arin, a hollow, inexplicable sensation began boiling and pooling over around his lungs. For Dan, an ever-present emptiness in his chest was spreading through his body and leaking into Arin, turning into a brilliant breadth.

The wind stopped and the grass settled. The whole world seemed to stop spinning on its axis in this moment.

The rest was beyond words. Dan thrust in and out of Arin like a beast. Arin clawed at Dan and wailed to the heavens. Any who bore witness would have seen nothing but two wild animals mad with passion. In reality, two souls were fusing together. Every brush of Dan’s knot inside him filled Arin with a sense of security he had never known, and every squeeze around his cock warmed Dan’s very being up to the point of burning. Before long, Arin began feeling a phantom tightness engulfing his own length. A tingling warmth traveled down it, and the faint bite of nails echoed down his shoulders, though they remained flush against the grass. Dan felt himself opening up and feeling more whole than he understood, and his throat throbbed dully as though a field of bruises were blossoming on the skin. Dan opened his eyes and felt the same out-of-body experience as before but even stronger: the two were splayed out on the grass before him, their bodies moving in slow-motion. Arin experienced something similar, seeing the scene as though it was being acted out by two dopplegangers instead of himself and the love of his life. They felt nothing and everything at once – they felt their own bodies and they felt the others. The sheer harmony of the moment was not lost on either of them, and a passionate peace dawned upon them both as Dan rutted faster and faster into Arin. His knot swelled even greater before he came apart at the seams, spilling into Arin, throwing his head back, and howling out his lover’s name to the moon. Arin’s back bowed away from the grass and his fingers dug into Dan’s skin like claws as his body shook, feeling Dan’s name rip from his throat more so than hearing it. His ears were ringing and all he could hear was his blood rushing. His vision came back to him moments later, and he was treated to the sight of Dan hanging his head back limply, his face perfectly illuminated and his chest shaking as he caught his breath. As he looked on, Arin reached up delicately and ran his fingers down Dan’s jaw and across his neck. The touch echoed on Arin’s own skin and it was so surreal, so amazing that his eyes watered against his will. Dan collected himself enough to roll his head back up in response to the touch on his neck, but before he understood what was happening his chest was tightening and a tear was leaking out of his eye. He and Arin locked onto each other and they felt it again – that sensation of being themselves and being the other simultaneously. They stared on for several seconds until, together, they split into goofy grins. Tears flowed openly down both their cheeks, and Arin sat up fully to meet Dan in a smothering embrace. They rocked in each others arms, smiling and crying like morons, until the effect of the bond weakened enough for them to regain their composure. As they settled back into their own bodies, the fantastic sensation of being one lingered in their chests.

The only word they both decided could do the feeling justice was ‘complete’.

 

\---------------------

  
Three months later, Dan scrubs at a sudsy plate and stares out the window at the swirling clouds. The ever-present serenity in his heart warms him on this cold autumn day, and he smiles gently to himself as his hands keep busy in the soapy water.

His eyes close softly and a deep rumbling bubbles up from his throat. He’s humming. It’s a song he’s sure he’s never heard before, but it takes over his voice effortlessly. Eyes still closed, he begins to sing out the notes to the empty room in broken ‘la’s and and ‘mmm’s, letting the rhythm completely take him over.

He loses himself in the melody, smiling and humming again as he returns to reality and finishes off his dishes.

He’ll have that song in his heart for the rest of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> Welp!  
> Good job surviving that shitstorm.  
> I just had to get all those horny omegaverse feels out, you know?
> 
> Hope you liked it ;-;


End file.
